Asad Ismi & Kristin Schwartz

The Ravaging of Africa, a four-part radio documentary series about the destructive impact of U.S. imperialism on Africa, featuring voices of African activists interviewed at the 2007 World Social Forum held in Nairobi, Kenya.

Written by Asad Ismi
Produced by Kristin Schwartz

Through the Pentagon and the CIA, the U.S. government has fueled 14 wars in Africa. The methods employed include direct and proxy invasions as well as arms transfers and military training. The U.S. has used the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund to systematically demolish African economies and health and education sectors. This military and economic war enables the looting of Africa’s resources by Western multinational corporations. Washington’s genocidal imperial strategy has killed more than 26 million Africans but failed to suppress popular resistance.

1. “Militarizing Africa” describes how the United States has fomented the devastating war in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, as well as taken part in and engineered the Ethiopian invasion of Somalia. With Mfuni Kazadi, Millicent Okumu, Farah Maalim and Halima Abdi Arush.

2. “Economic War” focuses on the World Bank’s and IMF’s decimation of the economies and social sectors of Guinea, Zambia, Kenya and South Africa. With Bakary Fofana, Sara Longwe, Caroline Adhiambo, Njuki Githethwa and Molefe Pilane.

3. “Corporate Plunder” details the disastrous effects of Royal Dutch Shell’s operations in Nigeria and those of Canada’s Tiomin Resources in Kenya. Also highlighted is the massive tax looting of Africa by Western corporations. With Ifieniya Lott, Mwana Siti B. Juma, Charles Abugre and John Christensen.

4. “African Resistance” celebrates the liberation of Southern Africa, the defeat of U.S. aims in the Congo and Somalia, as well as the diverse non-military struggles against U.S. domination that were represented at the World Social Forum. With Wahu Kaara, Amade Suca, Mfuni Kazadi, Farah Maalim, Virginia Magwaza-Setshedi, Emilie Atchaka and Njeru Munyi.

Asad Ismi is an award-winning writer on international politics specializing in the impact of U.S. and Canadian imperialism on the Global South. He is international affairs correspondent for the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives Monitor, Canada’s biggest left-wing magazine (by circulation). Asad is the author of more than 150 articles, eight reports, six radio documentaries, six books and an anthology. He has written for 21 progressive Canadian unions and non-governmental organizations. For his publications, visit www.asadismi.ws.

Kristin Schwartz is a community-based writer, radio producer and radio broadcaster. She is a founding contributor to GroundWire Community Radio News, a biweekly progressive public affairs program which airs on 25 community radio stations across Canada. She has also produced and reported for Free Speech Radio News in the United States. Her writing has been published in the CCPA Monitor, Labour/Le Travail, and Canada’s independent labour magazine Our Times, and she is the author of “A Million Reasons: The Victory of the $10.00 Minimum Wage Campaign” published by the Toronto and York Region Labour Council. Kristin is employed in the settlement sector and is a member of the union Unifor Local 40.